Underwater breathing apparatus

ABSTRACT

Diver worn breathing bags are covered with chain mail to counteract the positive buoyancy of the breathing bags and to afford armor protection for them.

[151 3,656,196 1 Apr. 18,1972

United States Patent ONeiII 741,298 10/1903 Binney.................61/68 2,348,074 5/1944 Lambertsen..........................1.128/202 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 464,145 8/1928 Germany [54]UNDERWATER BREATHING APPARATUS [72] Inventor: Wilbur J. ONeiII, SevernaPark, Md.

[73] Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Primary Examiner-Milton Buchler Assistant Examiner-Paul E. Sauberer [22]FiIed: June 12, 1969 Attorney-F. H. Henson, E. P. Klipfel and D. Schron[21] AppI.No.: 832,670

ABSTRACT g bags and to 4 Clainis, 7 Drawing Figures [56] ReferencesCited UNITED STATES PATENTS Lambertsen........................1211/1422UNDERWATER BREATHING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE iNVENTION 1. Field ofthe Invention Underwater breathing apparatus incorporating flexiblebreathing bags.

2. Description of the Prior Art Many types of underwater breathingequipment incorporate flexible breathing chamber means in the form ofone, or two interconnected breathing bags. The breathing bags aresupplied with a breathable gas and are communicative with the diver sothat the diver inhales from, and exhales into the breathing bags.

It is well known that a body immersed in a liquid is buoyed up by aforce equal to the weight of the liquid it displaces. Accordingly, whenthe breathing bags are inflated there is a positive buoyant force whichmust be counteracted. This counteraction of the positive buoyancy isaccomplished by the provision of a weight belt worn around the diverswaist and containing, for example, lead weights which in addition tocounteracting the buoyant force of the breathing bags also counteractthe buoyant force of other diver related equipment such as a neoprenerubber diving suit.

With the foregoing arrangement the center of buoyancy is positioned inthe vicinity of the divers chest while the center of gravity ispositioned near his waist. When the diver is in a position other thanvertical, he must expend energy in fighting to maintain his positionsince there is a couple tending to rotate the diver back to his originalvertical position. This restoring moment is undesirable.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provideunderwater breathing apparatus incorporating flexible breathing chambermeans and wherein energy expending restoring moments are eliminated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Apparatus according to the present inventionincludes flexible breathing bag means which is provided with abreathable gas. A flexible distributed weighting means is disposed overthe breathing bags and is of a particular weight with a weightdistribution to counteract the positive buoyancy of the breathing bagswhen they are inflated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front view of a typicaldiver apparatus incorporating flexible breathing bags;

FIG. 2 is a representation indicating various forces on a diver, whichforces tend to produce rotation;

FIG. 3 is a front view of underwater breathing apparatus in accordancewith a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a section of FIG. 3 taken along line IV-IV;

FIG. 4A illustrates a modification of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 represents the forces, as in FIG. 2, with the preferredembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates anotherbreathing bag arrangement.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 there is illustrateddiver worn underwater breathing apparatus which includes flexiblebreathing bag means 10 having a first section 10a and a second section10b. A breathable gas is supplied to the breathing bags by way of gasinlet means 14 connected to breathing bag 10a which is sometimesreferred to as the inhalation breathing bag, the other breathing bag 10bbeing referred to as the exhalation breathing bag. In most systems theinhalation and exhalation breathing bags 10a and 10b are interconnectedby passageway means (not shown) including a carbon dioxide absorbent.The gas inlet means 14 is connected to a source of breathable gas eithercarried by the diver or supplied from a remote position. The diverinhales from breathing bag 10a and exhales into breathing bag 1012 byway of breathing tubes 16 and mouthpiece l8.

The breathing bags 10a and 10b are detachably afiixed to a vest 21 bymeans of lock tabs 23. Alternatively, the breathing bags may form anintegral part of the vest. To counteract the buoyancy of various diverequipment, including the buoyancy of the breathing bags 10a and 10b, thediver wears around his waist, a belt 25 having weights 26 disposedthereon. The effect of this arrangement when the diver is in ahorizontal, or near horizontal position is illustrated in FIG. 2.

The density of the human body is approximately equal to the density ofwater so that a diver displaces substantially his own weight in waterand the diver per se is neutrally buoyant. The diver however, as thediver in the swimming position of FIG. 2, wears a weighted belt 25 tocounteract the buoyancy of the breathing bags and other relatedapparatus. The weight of the weighted belt 25 may be treated as a singleforce F whose point of application is the center of gravity (of theweighted belt) designated COG.

The breathing bags represented by the numeral 10, experience a buoyantor lift force F which acts vertically through the center of gravity ofthe displaced volume, which point is called the center of buoyancy anddesignated COB. It is to be noted that with the weights 26 symmetricallydisposed about the diver, the center of gravity (COG would be at a pointequally distant from the weighted belt 25 and internal to the diver.With symmetrical breathing bags the center of buoyancy COB would occurjust in front of the diver's chest at a position midway between thebreathing bags.

The diver of FIG. 2 is acted upon by two oppositely directed forces Fand F whose lines of action do not coincide. The sole effect of thesetwo forces is to produce rotation which the diver must continuouslyfight to maintain his position. The present invention minimizes thisrotational force by effectively placing the force F colinear with, or asclose as practical to, F One arrangement for accomplishing thiseffective move ment is illustrated in FIG. 3 wherein components similarto those described in FIG. 1 have been given like reference numerals.

In order to bring the forces F w and F B into substantial coincidence,there is provided a flexible distributed weighting means in the form offlexible armor 30 disposed over the breathing bag means 10 and being ofa certain weight to counteract the positive buoyancy of the breathingbags when in flated to a predetermined volume. The flexible armor 30 isa very negatively buoyant, relatively dense flexible material such as amaterial composed of small rings of metal interconnected or interlinkedas in a chain and extending in width as well as in length. Such materialis sometimes referred to as chain mail. Another material which may beutilized is fabricated of heavy particles such as metal shot distributedin a flexible material or sandwiched in an envelope of flexiblematerial. With the breathing bags 10a and 10b being fabricated ofalternate layers of material such as canvas and rubber, there may beincluded between layers distributed weighting means such as the metalshot, for counteracting the breathing bag buoyancy. Other arrangementssuch as interlinked metallic loops, or even metal disks glued orotherwise fastened to the breathing bags may be utilized.

FIG. 4 is a view along line IV-IV of FIG. 3 and illustrates the flexiblearmor 30 disposed over the front of the breathing bag 10a and rearwardlyof it such as between the back portion 33 and the vest 21. In thismanner the flexible armor 30 surrounds the breathing bag so that thecenter of gravity of the added weight of the flexible armor 30 isdisposed within the breathing bag 10a at a point coincident with orclose to the center of buoyancy of that breathing bag. For the entiresystem including both breathing bags 10a and 10b there is a resultantcenter of gravity and a resultant center of buoyancy due to thecontribution of each breathing bag and each flexible armor covering.

In breathing bag systems, there may be, for difi'erent diverorientations an inflated portion and a deflated portion of the breathingbags. With the flexible armor utilized in a semiclosed system and withthe diver swimming on his back, the

weight of the flexible armor will aid in compressing the breathing bagto compensate for the difference between the water pressure acting onthe breathing bag and the divers chest. When the diver is swimming in achest down position it is desired that the breathing bag expand underthe weight of the armor to compensate for the hydrostatic difference andaccordingly the flexible armor 30 may be secured to the breathing bagssuch as by stitching 37 at positions along the length of the breathingbag.

An alternate arrangement illustrated in 4A has the flexible armor 30extending only over the front portion of the breathing bag 10a. Withsuch arrangement the center of gravity would be disposed somewhat fromthe FIG. 4 center of gravity however the resulting system would still bea vast improvement in reducing the objectionable situation described inFIG. 2.

For certain situations such as in shallow water it may be desirable toquickly remove the flexible armor. Accordingly, the flexible annor maybe detachably secured to the breathing bags by separablepressure-sensitive securing means such as cooperative sheets or strips,one having a hook face and the other a loop face.

FIG. 5 illustrates the diver in the same position as in FIG. 2, howeverdue to the addition of the flexible armor which covers the breathingbags and of a weight to approximately equal the buoyancy of thebreathing bags, the two forces F W F are now oppositely directed alongthe same line and no resulting torque is produced which would tend torotate the diver to an upright position.

The belt 25 may still include weights 26 to compensate for suit or otherequipment buoyancy however the weight which was previously carriedaround the waist for the breathing bags is now positioned over thebreathing bags.

By way of example a typical front mounted breathing bag system maycontain 8 liters of breathable gas mixture when inflated and wouldproduce approximately 16 pounds of positively buoyant force.Consequently, the flexible armor 30 would have a total weight of 16pounds, 8 pounds of which would be distributed about one flexiblebreathing bag and 8 pounds about the other flexible breathing bag.

The flexible armor 30 not only compensates for undesired moments butalso serves as a protective covering against tears and punctures. Theflexible armor has been illustrated in conjunction with front mountedbreathing bags. It also finds utility in conjunction with apparatusincorporating a single back mounted flexible breathing chamber. Anotherarrangement of breathing bags is illustrated in FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 shows an underwater breathing apparatus which incorporatesflexible breathing bag means 40 having first and second sections 40a and40b. Each section is in the form of a closed loop or toroid worn aroundrespective shoulders of the diver. Such arrangement is described andclaimed in copending application Ser. No. 832,675 filed June 12, 1969and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. Whensupplied with a breathable gas mixture, the flexible breathing bag means40 remains within a range of halffull for all orientations of the diver.To minimize unwanted rotational forces in such system the breathing bags40a and 4012 are completely covered with the flexible armor 43 in theform of chain mail, by way of example.

Accordingly there has been described underwater breathing apparatusincorporating flexible breathing bag means wherein the breathing bagmeans is afforded protection from sharp objects and wherein the diverneed not expend energy in overcoming torque producing forces, when incertain positional orientations. The present invention has beendescribed with a certain degree of particularity. It should beunderstood that the disclosure has been made by way of example and thatmodifications and variations are made possible in the light of the aboveteachings.

I claim as my invention:

1. Underwater breathing apparatus comprising:

A. flexible breathin bag means; B. means for admr ting a breathable gasto said breathing bag means, and

C. flexible distributed weighting means;

D. said flexible distributed weighting means being connectablyassociated with said breathing bag means and being coextensive with themajor portion of the surface of said breathing bag means, and being of aweight to counteract the positive buoyancy of said breathing bag meanswhen inflated in the water.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein:

A. the flexible distributed weighting means surrounds the breathing bagmeans.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein:

A. the flexible distributed weighting means is a plurality ofinterconnected metal rings extending in width as well as in length.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein:

A. the flexible distributed weighting means is affixed to the flexiblebreathing bag means.

1. Underwater breathing apparatus comprising: A. flexible breathing bagmeans; B. means for admitting a breathable gas to said breathing bagmeans, and C. flexible distributed weighting means; D. said flexibledistributed weighting means being connectably associated with saidbreathing bag means and being coextensive with the major portion of thesurface of said breathing bag means, and being of a weight to counteractthe positive buoyancy of said breathing bag means when inflated in thewater.
 2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein: A. the flexibledistributed weighting means surrounds the breathing bag means. 3.Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein: A. the flexible distributedweighting means is a plurality of interconnected metal rings extendingin width as well as in length.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1wherein: A. the flexible distributed weighting means is affixed to theflexible breathing bag means.